Tuesday Bag o’ the Grumps

grumpy bagIt’s day five of a painful sore throat, the kind where 1) you dread having to swallow and 2) you have to swallow constantly. I stopped at the corner CVS yesterday to get something for it, and, since there wasn’t anyone in line, visited the “minute clinic.” The five-minute strep test was negative; the PA said I probably have allergies. I walked out with Flonase and Claritin. Still too soon to tell if they’re helping. Gargling with salt water, drinking tea with honey, all the standard home remedies.

These drug store minute clinics are pretty cool. In and out in no time; insurance picks up the tab. I suppose urgent care clinics have their place, but my memories of those places are all negative: waiting for hours to be seen, surrounded by crying babies and coughing adults. But maybe I was lucky with the minute clinic. Maybe there’s normally a line. Still, I think drug store clinics, manned by physician assistants, are a great response to our medical needs. Would we have minute clinics without Obamacare? I suspect not.

I’m trying to reprogram an old GPS navigation device our daughter gave us. I bought a Garmin for the new truck. It came with online support: new maps and databases whenever I want to download them. This older one, which I want to set up in Donna’s car, doesn’t seem to be supported any more. It’s a Mio, a brand I never heard of (Polly, when she gave it to us, said it was a TomTom, and maybe Mios and TomToms are the same thing). In any case, online support is nonexistent, so Donna will be driving around with outdated maps. If money happens to fall from the sky, I’ll buy her a new Garmin.

We plan to get a new trailer for the motorcycle, probably an enclosed one, which we’ll have to keep in the open area alongside the house. The neighborhood association didn’t like it when I parked our old motorcycle trailer there … they didn’t like our wood and rock piles either, or the garbage cans … so we’re thinking about building an RV gate beside the house to hide the open area. Donna thinks it’ll be cheap. I think otherwise.

Grandson Quentin is coming for his annual visit this Friday. Donna has him signed up for a week-long robotics camp at the U of A, so apart from the coming weekend he’ll be busy every day of his visit. Granddaughter Taylor, meanwhile, has moved back to Las Vegas from Seattle. She’s living at home and planning to relaunch her college career at UNLV. The kids — Quentin & Taylor’s mom and dad — aren’t coming to Tucson this summer, so we probably won’t see them until Thanksgiving (I can’t remember if we’re going there or they’re coming here).

I DVR’d the season three opening episode of Under the Dome, and good lord it was horrible. I don’t know what we’d do without Netflix and Amazon streaming TV … there is nothing worth watching on regular TV.

Please forgive me, I’m grumpy with this sore throat. More bloggage when I’m feeling better.

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